Professor Gordon to Speak at Genocide Conference

State-Sanctioned Incitement to Genocide: What Can Be Done?

September 23, 2008
Hyatt Regency, Washington, D.C.

International scholars worldwide have long acknowledged that deliberate policies of racial and ethnic incitement have been critical precursors to acts of genocide from the Holocaust to Rwanda. Lately, leading statesmen in the West, from Australia to Canada, have branded the language used by Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, and specifically his repeated calls for "wiping Israel off the map," as incitement to genocide and a violation of the 1948 Genocide Convention.

The U.S. House of Representatives adopted a resolution (HCon Res21) making that very determination in June 2007. Yet on September 22, Ahmadinejad will be arriving in the U.S. to address the UN General Assembly in New York. Ahmadinejad's third address before the world community must not be interpreted as international acquiescence to his message, which stands in total contradiction to the principles of the UN Charter and violates international law.

First Session: State Sanctioned Incitement to Genocide (9:30 AM – 11:30 AM)
A review of study cases wherein incitement led to genocide.
This session will include officials who have dealt with the atrocities in Bosnia, Rwanda and Darfur.

Chairman: Prof. Gregory Stanton, International Association of Genocide Scholars
Prof. Gregory Gordon
Prof. Payam Akhavan
Esther Mujawayo
Salih Mahmud Osam

Second Session: What Can Be Done? (12:00 noon – 1:30 PM)
The international community has recognized a growing responsibility to not only punish genocides that have occurred, but to prevent them on the basis of early warning-signs, such as incitement. The Responsibility to Protect (R2P) principle, adopted by the UN Security Council which obligates states to act against incitement, will also be discussed.

Chairman: Harold Tanner, Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations
Amb. Richard Holbrooke
Amb. Dore Gold
Prof. Irwin Cotler